CNN ratings surge on Zimmerman guests

7/16/13 5:19 PM EDT

CNN experienced major ratings gains on Monday night due to interviews with two players in the George Zimmerman trial: Rachel Jeantel, a key witness, and an anonymous juror.

CNN's total primetime audience was up 77 percent over last Monday night, while it's ratings in the coveted 25-to-54 year-old demo were up 142 percent, according to Nielsen ratings provided by the network. It bested Fox News in the demo and absolutely crushed MSNBC in both the demo and total.

The ratings victory was predicted by Matt Drudge, the founder of Drudge Report, who tweeted on Monday night: “CNN Jeff Zucker is having one of the best night’s of his career... Piers Morgan hotter than temps outside; Anderson Cooper lit up wires. Ratings win?”

The anonymous juror appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 at 8 p.m., causing Cooper to nearly come even with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly in the demo.

Jeantel, a friend of Trayvon Martin's and key witness in the case, brought even bigger gains for Piers Morgan at 9 p.m. Morgan's ratings went up 100 percent overall and 199 percent in the demo, far outperforming Fox's Sean Hannity in the demo and absolutely crushing Rachel Maddow in both the demo and total viewership.

UPDATE (6:35 p.m.): A CNN source points out that a significant amount of Monday night's traffic was driven by Twitter. Cooper and Morgan are among the two most-followed media personalities on Twitter, with more than 7.7 million followers between the two of them, and their Twitter activity helped generate awareness about the bookings, which were made late in the day.

"I think last night was a win for social/digital (as well as, of course, big bookings)," another CNN source said.